Early career
While studying English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in the 1980s, he wrote and performed comedy in a revue group called "The Seven Raymonds" with Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Michael Cosgrave, Richard Canning and Tim Richardson, but did not perform in the well-known Oxford Revue, though he did write for and direct the 1989 Revue. Having moved to London and begun performing stand up comedy after university, he rose to greater prominence in 1990, winning the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition.
With Richard Herring, Lee wrote material for BBC Radio 4's
On the Hour (1991), which was anchored by Chris Morris and was notable for the first appearance of Steve Coogan's celebrated character, Alan Partridge, for which Lee and Herring wrote much early material. After a disagreement with the rest of the cast, Lee & Herring did not remain with the group when
On The Hour moved to television as
The Day Today and their material was excised from an official release of the radio show in the mid-'90s (though a 2008 CD release would see it re-instated).
In 1992 and 1993, he and Herring wrote and performed
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World for BBC Radio 4, before moving to BBC Radio 1, for one series of
Fist of Fun (1993). This was followed by three series entitled, simply,
Lee and Herring. These shows mixed sketches with live links and music, in a format that Radio 1 seemed to favour at the time. (Other classic examples of such include shows by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, and Simon Munnery in his guise as "Alan Parker: Urban Warrior".)
Fist of Fun moved to television for two BBC Two series, and was followed in 1998 by
This Morning with Richard Not Judy, which featured material in a similar vein, but was notable for being broadcast live in a Sunday morning slot.
A change in BBC management after the second series of the latter effectively brought his partnership with Herring to an end but the two comedians still share a similarity of humour.
Throughout the late nineties he continued performing solo stand-up (something that has always been a mainstay of his career — even whilst in the double act with Herring) and has collaborated with, amongst others, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of
The Mighty Boosh. Indeed, though they had worked together in the past, the first seeds of the Boosh were sown whilst working as part of Lee's Edinburgh show
King Dong vs Moby Dick in which Barratt and Fielding played a giant penis and a whale, respectively. Lee returned the favour by going on to direct their 1999 Edinburgh show, Arctic Boosh, which remains the template of all their live work.
Career 2000—04
In 2001, Lee published his first novel,
The Perfect Fool. It was republished in 2008. In the same year he performed
Pea Green Boat, a stand-up show which revolved around the deconstruction of the Edward Lear poem
The Owl and the Pussycat and a tale of his own broken toilet. This would later be condensed to focus mainly on the poem itself, and a 15 minute version aired on Radio 4. In 2007, Go Faster Stripe released a 25-minute edit on CD & 10" Vinyl.
During late 2000 and early 2001, Lee "gradually, incrementally and without any fanfare — or even much thought — gave up being a stand-up comedian". 2001 was the first year since 1987 that he did not perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. Whilst Lee found himself gradually performing less and less standup and moving away from the stage, he continued his directorial duties on television. Two pilots were made for Channel 4,
Cluub Zarathrustra and
Head Farm, but neither were developed into a series. The former, however, would feature all the ingredients that would later appear in
Attention Scum, a BBC2 series fronted by Simon Munnery's
League Against Tedium character, which also featured the likes of Kevin Eldon, Johnny Vegas and Roger Mann, as well as Richard Thomas and opera singer Lori Lixenberg, in their guise as "Kombat Opera".
All the while, the theatre piece
Jerry Springer — The Opera had been evolving. From its small scale beginnings as a scratch piece at Battersea Arts Centre, it achieved its finished form at London's National Theatre via performances at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe. Also in 2002, Lee played the role of Carey in the
Doctor Who webcast
Real Time, together with Richard Herring as Renchard and Colin Baker as the Doctor, and accepted an offer from the composer Richard Thomas to contribute ideas to the fledgling production,
Jerry Springer — The Opera.
At the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Lee directed Johnny Vegas's first DVD,
Who's Ready For Ice Cream?, a move away from the traditional "stand-up comic releases a DVD" format, involving a plot in which Vegas loses his comedy "mojo" and has to track it down via a journey of personal discovery. The DVD also features footage of Vegas' actual standup set as additional extras.
In 2004, Lee returned to stand-up comedy with the show
Standup Comedian, which earned him a "Tap Water Award" in Edinburgh and was released on DVD in October 2005. This features extra footage of performances from his earlier career on Five's "Comedy Network". This show was toured extensively throughout the UK, Australia and USA. Reviewing the comedy of the decade, Dominic Maxwell in
The Times wrote of Lee's 2004 return to stand-up that it was "one of the boldest, smartest, most technically assured hours of stand-up I've ever seen".
2005: Jerry Springer The Opera
In January 2005,
Jerry Springer - The Opera, a satirical musical/opera based upon
The Jerry Springer Show, was broadcast on BBC Two, following a highly successful West End run for several years, and as a prelude to the show's UK Tour.Christian Voice led a number of protest groups who claimed that the show was blasphemous and highly offensive. In particular, they were angered by the portrayal of Jesus Christ. Disputes arose, with supporters claiming that most of the protesters had neither seen the show nor knew of its actual content. Others supported the right to freedom of speech. Several Christian groups protested at some of the venues used during the UK Tour. The show was broadcast with a record number of complaints prior to its transmission. In total, the BBC received 55,000 complaints. A private court case brought by Christian Voice against Lee and others involved with the production for blasphemy was rejected by a Magistrates' Court.
In 2005, Lee tackled the subject of the religious hatred he experienced after the broadcast of
Jerry Springer — The Opera in his stand-up show,
90s Comedian. This show has earned him some of the best reviews of his career, largely due to the un-checked vitriol he unleashes in the latter half of the set, "taking no prisoners" in his attempt to display what he claimed was the lunacy of sacred cows.
A recording was made in Cardiff in March 2006. This was filmed by a group of amateur enthusiasts who were disappointed that there was no distribution deal in place because of the commercial failure of the
Standup Comedian DVD and the controversial nature of the new show's material. These "enthusiastic amateurs" became GoFasterStripe and, having set themselves up in order to film the show, have gone on to film the works of many other "non-mainstream" comedians, including sets from Tony Law (Lee's support act on the 2009
If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One tour), Simon Munnery (whose BBC television comedy series -
Attention Scum - was directed by Lee) and several by Lee's former partner Richard Herring.
Jerry Springer — The Opera opened at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2008, starring Harvey Keitel as Springer. It has since been performed across the United States, Canada and Australia.
2006
Many assumed Lee would bring a new hour of stand up to Edinburgh in 2006 to consolidate his "comeback" success, but he did not.Implying that it might have happened under different circumstances, he commented at the time on his website that, "I assumed I was going to be working out 6 half hours of stand-up for a TV project but it fell through".However, he did visit the festival in capacity of director with a production of the Eric Bogosian play
Talk Radio with a cast which included Phil Nichol, Mike McShane, Will Adamsdale, Stephen K Amos and Tony Law.
In 2006, in addition to his directorial contribution to Talk Radio, he gigged regularly and appeared on television and radio, in — amongst others — Armando Iannucci's,
Time Trumpet, as a version of himself thirty years in the future looking back and commentating on the present day. The show ran on BBC2 between August & 6 September 2006.Also in August, Lee presented a programme in the Five series
Don't Get Me Started. The documentary discussed the issues of blasphemy, free speech, religious censorship and the rise in protests from religious groups over perceived attacks on their faith. This was of course of some interest to Lee, especially considering his experience in the
Jerry Springer -The Opera controversy (see above). The programme was renamed from
New Puritans to
Stewart Lee Says What's So Bad About Blasphemy? without Lee's knowledge.
He separated from his long standing management company, Avalon, after a promised BBC series fell through (and because of a loss of trust resulting in part from incidents such as the retitling of the blasphemy documentary), and appeared on the BBC Radio 4 quiz
Quote Unquote,
Never Mind the Buzzcocks and on
Have I Got News for You, purportedly to pay for his wedding.
In October, he presented a forty year tribute to
Star Trek on BBC Radio 2, and in November, presented
White Face, Dark Heart, two programmes on Radio 4 about clowns, during which he fulfilled a ten-year desire to witness the rituals of New Mexico's sacred clowns. These shows are available to download on his official website.
He curated a CD for the Sonic Arts Network called
The Topography of Chance. Lee explored different artists, writers and musician’s experiments with randomness and chance and brought together an eclectic mix of artists including tracks by; Simon Munnery, Arthur Smith, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Jem Finer, Kombat Opera, Jon Rose and more.
2007
January saw Lee open his show
What Would Judas Do in double bill with Mark Ravenhill's
Product: World Remix at London's Bush Theatre.He announced at the time that he was also writing — with Tony Law a sitcom pilot about the god Thor, for BBC Two, and script-editing another pilot, a sitcom about the Brontė sisters.In February, he organised a tribute to cult comedian Ted Chippington entitled "Tedstock" at London's Bloomsbury Theatre. This was designed, in part, to raise money to fund a CD release of Chippington's work — which was available to buy on the night, "Walking Down The Road". The show included a one-off performance from Lee and Herring, along with fellow Ted fans Simon Munnery, The Nightingales, Phil Jupitus, Josie Long and Stephen Carlin.
Lee's first new stand up show since "90s Comedian" was developed over the first half of 2007, originally to be named
March Of The Mallards (a title parodying that of the film,
March of the Penguins), it would be renamed before its full debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of that year, and subsequent Autumn tour. This was because, in March 2007, Lee was named 41st best stand-up of all time in a Channel 4 survey listing the "100 best standups". In this poll, he beat Dave Allen, George Carlin, Steve Martin, Robin Williams and Tommy Cooper. Channel 4 did not reveal exactly how the voting was conducted, but 150,000 members of the public were polled, as were an undisclosed number of experts.
In the light of this result Lee renamed his Summer 2007 stand-up show 'Stewart Lee — 41st Best Stand Up Ever!' as he felt it was "both arrogant and humble". During the show he joked that since Bernard Manning (who had been placed above him in the poll) had died since the Channel 4 poll had first aired, he felt he should be moved up to Number 40. Another project, "Johnson & Boswell, Late But Live", written by Lee & performed by comics Simon Munnery and Miles Jupp played throughout the festival at the Traverse Theatre before embarking upon a tour of Scotland.
July 2007, Lee appeared on the Channel 4 panel game,
8 out of 10 Cats, which he has since described as "the worst professional experience of my life". July 2007 also saw the premiere of
Interiors, a site-specific theatre piece co-written with Johnny Vegas, at the Manchester International Festival.
2008
2008 began, as 2007 had ended, with the continuing tour of "41st Best Standup". It became Lee's longest tour to date, and was filmed at the Glasgow Stand for DVD release by Real Talent in April (the DVD hit stores in July).
Lee also co wrote 'Poets' Tree' with close friend & collaborator, the actor Kevin Eldon. This was a BBC Radio 4 series that was aired in April 2008, based on Paul Hamilton, Eldon's arrogant poet alter-ego.
At the Edinburgh Festival in 2008 Lee performed potential material for his recently announced BBC2 series,
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, in a work in progress show at The Stand, billed as
Scrambled Egg. Over the three weeks of the festival, Lee worked on a large quantity of new material, and updated old favourites for possible inclusion in the show, which began filming the following November. A follow up to Johnson & Boswell also aired, again featuring Munnery & Jupp.
Elizabeth & Raleigh, Late But Live was featured at the festival before touring the country in the autumn. In November, Lee began filming for his 2009 TV show, and on the 16th November, reunited with Herring another one off performance of their old double act at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith during one of the gigs Richard Herring curated there. They were joined by Paul Putner in character as the Curious Orange. With initial filming out of the way,
Scrambled Egg was reprised at London's Hen & Chickens Theatre in December to fully polish the stand up sections of the forthcoming TV project ahead of filming in January 2009.
2009
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, a new six part comedy series featuring standup and sketches, began a six episode run on 16 March 2009. The executive producer was Armando Iannucci and the script editor was Chris Morris. The first episode received positive reviews from The Independent and The
Daily Mirror. The show received a negative review in
Time Out, written by Lee himself, in which he described himself as "fat" and his performance as "positively Neanderthal, suggesting a jungle-dwelling pygmy, struggling to coax notes out of a clarinet that has fallen from a passing aircraft".
The Guardian named
Comedy Vehicle as one of its top ten television highlights of 2009, commenting that it "was the kind of TV that makes you feel like you're not the only one wondering how we came to be surrounded by so much unquestioned mediocrity". One of the show's few negative reviews came in the
Sunday Mercury, which stated: "His whole tone is one of complete, smug condescension". Lee subsequently used this line to advertise his next stand-up tour. Lee frequently uses negative reviews on his posters in order to put off potential audience members who are unlikely to be fans of his comedy style.
The first episode was watched by approximately 1 million viewers, though the figure rose by 25% when BBC iPlayer viewings were factored in and, uncharacteristically, viewing figures rose over the series. The series was the BBC's second most downloaded broadcast during its run. In May 2010, the series was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for best comedy programme.
Lee also had a show at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, named
Stewart Lee: If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One in which he performed his own version of the song "Galway Girl". In the Galway stage of this show Sharon Shannon performed the song with Lee. He is currently touring the show around the UK. In December 2009 Lee was beaten to the title of Best Live Stand-Up by the comedian Michael McIntyre at the British Comedy Awards ceremony.
Lee caused controversy on his
If You Prefer a Milder Comedian tour with a joke about
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. Referring to Hammond's accident while filming in 2006, in which he was almost killed, Lee joked, "I wish he had been decapitated and that his head had rolled off in front of his wife". The
Daily Mail termed this an "extraordinary attack" and, having been doorstepped by a
Mail journalist, Lee replied "It's a joke, just like on Top Gear when they do their jokes". Lee subsequently explained the joke:
The idea of what's acceptable and what's shocking, that's where I investigate. I mean, you can't be on Top Gear, where your only argument is that it's all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that. Put simply, if Clarkson can say the prime minister is a one-eyed Scottish idiot, then I can say that I hope his children go blind.—Stewart Lee
In an
Observer interview, Sean O'Hagan says of the Hammond joke that Lee "operates out in that dangerous hinterland between moral provocation and outright offence, often adopting, as in this instance, the tactics of those he targets in order to highlight their hypocrisy".
2010
On 4 January Lee appeared on
Celebrity Mastermind, with jazz-improv guitarist Derek Bailey as his special subject, winning with 26 points in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. On the 9th of February, Armando Iannucci, the executive producer of the first series of
Comedy Vehicle, announced that there would be a second series of the show. On 10 April an updated version of
The 100 Greatest Stand-Ups was broadcast on Channel 4, in which Lee was declared the 12th best stand-up comedian. The May Day weekend saw Lee curating a programme of free jazz at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, at the invitation of festival director Tony Dudley-Evans.
Lee's second book,
How I Escaped My Certain Fate: The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian, was published by Faber and Faber on 5 August 2010. The book features annotated transcripts of Lee's
Stand-Up Comedian,
90s Comedian and 41st Best Stand-Up Ever shows and has received positive reviews. It is dedicated to Ted Chippington.Lee's 2010 Edinburgh Fringe show is entitled
Vegetable Stew. Prior to the start of the festival, Lee wrote a e-mail to the publicist of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, copying in other comedians, in response to the announcement of a poll to find the public's favourite act from 30 years of the award, which was previously known as the Perrier Award. Lee wrote:
Think about the logic of it for a moment. Who among those you are asking to vote has even heard of Frank Chickens, who for all anyone under 30 knows may be the best act on the list? It is not possible for the outcome of this vote to have any credibility.
As result of his e-mail going viral with the encouragement of Richard Herring and Robin Ince, Frank Chickens took the lead in the poll. During the polling, Lee wrote that: "In my e-mail I chose at random Frank Chicken, the Japanese female performance art duo, as an example of possibly worthy winners who would not get a look-in under this illogical and unfair voting system, and the Twitter world has adopted them as a cause". He stated that it was never his intention to influence the vote, "but they are now leading the field, and it appears we should embrace them. If Frank Chickens become Comedy Gods then Foster's will have been helped to actually sponsor some actual art, and fans of Foster's all over the whole world will be made aware of that wonderful, indefinable, mischievous, playful thing we call the Spirit Of The Fringe!". Frank Chickens went on the win the public vote.
As a result of the Frank Chickens incident, Lee was awarded the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt award for best publicity stunt at the Fringe. The award's organisers stated: "The fact that Stewart did not intend to unleash publicity does not negate his success".
In addition to his main Edinburgh show, on 18 August Lee headlined a one-night variety show,
Silver Stewbilee, to launch
How I Escaped My Certain Fate. The show included performances by Simon Munnery as Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, Bridget Christie, Kevin Eldon, Paul Putner, Frank Chickens and Franz Ferdinand.
On 15 September 2010, Lee, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in
The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.
